Championship Sunday approaches with Bears fans in the customary position of trying to find a rooting interest for the big games.The last time they actually had the chance to watch their team in the game, Jay Cutler was heading off the sidelines with a knee injury and Caleb Hanie was taking them home.
Now, another quarterback named Caleb (Williams) is on their horizon.
Bears fans have plenty of different ways to approach the conference championship games and one does involve the big quarterback decision their team faces.
1. The NFC North Approach
In the NFC Championship Game, Bears fans can unite with the long-suffering Detroit Lions fans and hope to see Jared Goff lead an upset of the San Francisco 49ers on the road. The Lions, Browns, Jaguars and Texans are the only teams never to appear in a Super Bowl and the Lions hadn’t even made a conference title game since former Bears QB Erik Kramer was their QB in the 1991 season.
2. The Anti-NFC North Approach
Then again, Bears fans could take the anti-Lions approach, feeling a bit like they don’t like seeing another NFC North team enjoying a chance at the Lombardi Trophy. Is it selfish? Some grudges are too deep. The Hatfields didn’t root the McCoys on. Red Sox fans don’t root for the Yankees in the World Series. The Lions aren’t the Packers, but they’re close enough for Bears fans to hope they absorb a good beating at the hands of the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game and then crawl back into the woodwork from whence they came.
3. The Anti-Nagy Approach
This is reseved for the AFC Championship Game. Matt Nagy is offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs. He wasn’t the most popular coach when he left Chicago after four seasons, although he had been when he won NFL Coach of the Year in 2018. The failures of the offense and how it’s correctly or incorrectly perceived that Nagy ruined Justin Fields as a rookie, all play into this. Bears fans want to see the Chiefs absorb a good beating and elimination.
This one runs hand in hand with Bears fans who are tired of seeing it rubbed in their faces about how they could have drafted Patrick Mahomes and, just everyone is tired of seeing cutaways to Taylor Swift celebrating a catch by Travis Kelce and wants to see her pouting when the Chiefs are getting blasted.
4. The Pro-Former Bears Approach
This is another AFC Championship Game reason to root for Baltimore. Roquan Smith was the Bears weakside linebacker and was traded. Plenty of Chicago fans and a lot of Bears themselves are rooting for Smith to go as far as he can, even if he does seem to trash their organization earlier this year. Bears fans taking this approach would pull for a Ravens-Lions Super Bowl, because former Bears running back David Montgomery is the starting running back for the Lions.
5. The Future Bears QB Bowl
This is the most interesting tact and it is for the AFC Championship Game. It involves the future course of the Bears and the real debate raging daily among Chicago fans.
The AFC Championship Game features Ravens scrambling quarterback Lamar Jackson against Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, who uses his legs more to pass.
USC quarterback Caleb Williams could be the Bears QB choice. Williams has been called the closest thing to Patrick Mahomes to come along in the NFL Draft since the Chiefs took their QB. He plays with a style similar to Mahomes, playing off-script often but using his quickness to evade the rush and make uncanny throws downfield rather than take off for big rushing yards. He can run on occasion, but tries to use his legs to benefit his arm.
Jackson is often viewed to be like Fields, a QB who might throw for only 150 or 160 yards but can account for another 100 yards on the ground with his legs.
Which route should the Bears pursue this draft? What is the best route to take?
If you’re a Fields fan, you root for Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. If you’re a fan of getting rid of Fields and starting over at QB with Williams, you root for Mahomes because he plays more like Williams.
It might not even be a matter of choosing a side as much as it is a means for determining which is the best route to take. This AFC Championship Game becomes a crucible of sorts for Bears fans, the two opposing viewpoints stirred up and mixed in one game with the best route to take for the future determined by the winner in a battle of quarterback styles.
You can even take this future Bears QB approach toward the NFC Championship Game, although it’s more of a stretch. It’s not so much the participants, it’s just that the 49ers are viewed as a team that has QB-proofed its offense. They are using a seventh-round pick at quarterback, Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy. They can do it because they’ve built up such a good supporting cast around him.
The Bears have the chance to do this by trading away the first pick of the draft and using all the draft picks they get in return for giving up a chance at Williams to build a team so strong that Fields or any number of other quarterbacks could actually guide them to a Super Bowl win. In this case, you’d root for the 49ers.
6. Preferred Approach
This is probably the way most Bears fans will approach the championship games.
The Ravens are 4-point favorites and the 49ers 7 1/2-point favorites.
Give me the Ravens and the Lions covering through the back door.
Go Ravens. Go Lions.
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